The USGS report, one of a series of reports on water use released by the government agency every five years, details information recorded in their 2010 survey. It shows that while overall in the United States we are using less water — 13 percent less water, in fact, than we did in 2005 — Utah is bucking the trend, and our usage is actually up by 7 percent. The average Utahn uses 248 gallons of water per day, making us the largest consumers of water in the nation according to Zach Frankel, director of the Utah Rivers Council, who analyzed the numbers.

Perhaps it's our unrelenting push to change the arid desert around us into midwestern farmland and our insistence on planting lush green lawns instead of utilizing the native plants of the area in our landscape that's got us at the top of the list, but one has to admit that it is a problematic place to be and that more needs to be done.

The Washington County Water Conservancy District and the Central Iron County Water Conservancy District have been offering free water checks for years. They'll come out to your home and check your sprinkler system and make sure you're not over-watering. Rebates on low-flow toilets and installation of water-saving irrigation systems are available to homeowners, yet many of us aren't taking advantage of them.

But as well meaning as they are, the incentives and offers of free water checks and low-flow toilets haven't been effective enough to reduce our water use.

Why is it so hard for Utahns to conserve?

According to Eric Klotz, the Water Conservation Education Manager for the Utah Division of Water Resources, the numbers may not be quite as bad as the USGS report makes them out.

Unlike other states, Utah includes secondary water in the numbers they report to the USGS. In 2005's report, that usage wasn't included in the report's numbers while it was in 2010, hence the seeming increase in our state's consumption. According to Klotz, removing secondary water would bring Utahns down to consuming just 185 gallons of water per person per day.

"We know Utah's high. We're the second driest state, so it's not out of the question that we'll be at the top. But we're doing a lot to change that" Klotz said.

But are we doing enough? Even if the numbers aren't quite as bad as they appear, we can and should be better at conservation.

Do we need to introduce more radical means to force us to cut back on our conspicuous consumption? Do we need to implement limits on the amount of turf that can be planted at new homes? Should we raise impact fees to cover the cost of installing secondary water irrigation systems? Or should we be simply be paying higher prices for water to cover the cost of infrastructure, like the Lake Powell Pipeline, rather than rolling the costs into impact fees so end users get a truer measure of the price of their water?

The growth Southern Utah will experience in the coming decades necessitates finding more water and if we can't find a way to reduce our use, not even the Lake Powell Pipeline is going to slack our thirst. We need to start with conservation, we need to reduce our consumption and we need to start now.